Horseradish Meatloaf with Carmelized Onions and Sour Cream-Horseradish Sauce

(Makes 6-8 servings)

Ingredients:
2 medium onions, diced into small pieces
2-3 tsp. olive oil (or more, depending on your pan)
1 T finely minced garlic
1 tsp. dried thyme
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup light sour cream
3 T cream-style horseradish

1 T Worcestershire sauce
2 lbs. ground beef (use 10% fat or less for South Beach Diet)
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (use 100% whole wheat breadcrumbs for South Beach Diet)
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Sauce:
1/4 cup light sour cream
2 T mayo (use light or regular mayo but not fat free)
2 T cream-style horseradish

Directions:

Dice onions into small pieces. Heat oil in a large heavy frying pan, add onions, turn heat to low and let onions cook and caramelize, stirring every few minutes, until onions are nicely browned. (This will take 30-40 minutes; don’t rush this step and be careful that onions don’t burn or they will be bitter.) Add garlic and dried thyme and cook about 2 minutes more.

While onions are cooking, put the ground beef in a medium-sized bowl and let it come to room temperature. Mix together beaten eggs, sour cream, horseradish, and Worcestershire sauce. After onions have cooked for 15 minutes, start to preheat oven to 375F/190C.

When onions are done, add bread crumbs and onion-garlic mixture to the meat and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Then add egg/sour cream/horseradish/Worcestershire sauce mixture to meat. (Adding this on top of the onions will help cool them so you can handle the mixture.) Wash hands, then use your hands to gently combine until all the ingredients are well-mixed into the meat. Handle the meat as little as possible to get the ingredients mixed.

Spray broiler pan or roasting pan with non-stick spray, then form the meat into a loaf shape and place on pan. If desired, use a butter knife to make criss-cross marks in the top of the loaf.

Bake meatloaf about 1 1/2 hours, or until the meatloaf is nicely browned on the outside and cooked through on the inside. (If you have an instant-read meat thermometer, cook until the internal temperature is 155-160F/68-71C. (It will continue to cook during the 15 minutes resting time.)

Let meatloaf rest 10-15 minutes before cutting. While it rests, stir together sour cream, mayonnaise, and cream-style horseradish to make a sauce to serve with the meat.

This freezes well, and would be great to double the recipe and then freeze individual-serving sizes for an easy grab-and-go lunch.